I guess this where the personal personal preferences come in to play. I to prefer to hunt the higher # blinds, but you usually have to have a pretty good draw to get into MOST of those blinds. But i have no problem taking some of those middle cluster blinds. Sure you have to deal some of the skybuster type guys. but i've had lots of good hunts in the middle.

If you aren't picky what type of birds you shoot and are a decent shot, I usually would always get my limit. I normally would shoot the refuge in the afternoon and grab what ever blind was left or picked the best of the available options.

We can safely say I am clueless how to hunt any of them, never having done so. I am sure I can figure it out. As for being a good caller, I suck at it. I still manage to kill enough ducks to make it worth going.

I'll take 19 in a heart beat if it's still on the board in the stanby loto.

The bottom line with Ridgefield or any other refuge for that matter is. There will always be a couple "Hero" blinds which you gotta have a #1 or #2 reservation to get in, or sleep in the res line, a couple crappers that you can put on your do not hunt list. Which leaves a mess of middle of the road average blinds that you can get in with a draw or even off standby. So a guy just needs to figure out what makes them tick. And i think this is where personal preference/ confidence plays in. I may like a blind and have had several good past hunts. Where somebody like Tealer may not care or flat out hate that particular blind. Case in point blind #9 you will hear all kinds of guys pissing and moaning about that blind, but i will take it in a pinch and have had several good hunts there.

last but not least just general waterfowl savy comes into play, HIIIIIIIDDDDDDINGGGGGGG, decoy spreads, calling, etc. I"ve taken blinds where guys have shot at nothing all morning then gone in behind them and had great days.

goosegunner12 wrote:I'll take 19 in a heart beat if it's still on the board in the stanby loto.

The bottom line with Ridgefield or any other refuge for that matter is. There will always be a couple "Hero" blinds which you gotta have a #1 or #2 reservation to get in, or sleep in the res line, a couple crappers that you can put on your do not hunt list. Which leaves a mess of middle of the road average blinds that you can get in with a draw or even off standby. So a guy just needs to figure out what makes them tick. And i think this is where personal preference/ confidence plays in. I may like a blind and have had several good past hunts. Where somebody like Tealer may not care or flat out hate that particular blind. Case in point blind #9 you will hear all kinds of guys pissing and moaning about that blind, but i will take it in a pinch and have had several good hunts there.

last but not least just general waterfowl savy comes into play, HIIIIIIIDDDDDDINGGGGGGG, decoy spreads, calling, etc. I"ve taken blinds where guys have shot at nothing all morning then gone in behind them and had great days.

This is great info, thanks for your input!

I'm hoping to get down there sometime this Summer to check out all the blinds while there is no water down there. It'd be nice to see how deep some of these spots will be during hunting season then to find out the hard way...